


Expressing The Inexpressible

by Captain_Rachel



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Kink Meme, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-12
Updated: 2012-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-29 09:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/318575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Rachel/pseuds/Captain_Rachel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Filling my own request on the kinkmeme:<br/>You know that Buffy Episode "Once More With Feeling"? The one where a demon causes everyone to express their deepest, most secret feelings and thoughts in song? Can I get a Sherlock version of this?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expressing The Inexpressible

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I’m filling my own request. Title comes from an Aldous Huxley quote: "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

Most of the time when one of Jim Moriarty’s phones rings the person on the other end of the line has a problem that he needs the consulting criminal to solve… but occasionally the phone will ring and the person on the other end will have something to off Jim that isn’t a check or big sack of money.

  
One of Jim’s favorite things is a small medallion on a gold chain. The medallion looks like a piece of amber and is the size of a quarter. Unfortunately after the events in Sunnydale the medallion can no longer be used to summon it’s demonic owner… but the medallion still carries the demon’s magic and it still has a most amusing effect upon people. Jim should know—he tested it out and was pleasantly surprised by the results.

Sebastian is still glaring daggers at Jim every chance he has and Jim expects the Ex-Colonel to be silently fuming over his impromptu performance of “500 Miles” by The Proclaimers for a few more days… Sebastian would have been sulking for a week, but Jim’s own performance of “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees, which had been the result of Sebastian trying to throttle Jim for exposing him to the medallion without warning him beforehand… just another Saturday night in the Moriarty-Moran Home. (Although usually their Saturday night didn’t end with Jim and Sebastian singing/screaming Rihanna’s “S&M” as the proceeded to destroy another bed.)

A few calls to some of the more… _unusual_ contacts that Jim had access to and the effects of the medallion were spread out over a much larger area, although sadly the tradeoff for this was a reduction in the instances of singing/dancing. (Another call to those unusual contacts and Jim had a medallion that protected him and Sebastian from the first medallion… a unhappy sniper was not a good thing for an organization like Moriarty’s to have to deal with)

With his modifications on the medallion finished Jim turned it lose on London… and was almost immediately rewarded when the Iceman’s PA ended up singing Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” at a meeting concerning the American Presidential primaries when one of the men present had started flirting with her… Mycroft Holmes was not impressed and had started making inquiries among London’s magical community. Jim took the precaution of handing the medallion off to a more expendable member of his organization.

Meanwhile there were more isolated instances of spontaneous song and dance cropping up over London, including two teenagers who were prevented from enacting some sort of Romeo and Juliet double suicide because they started singing Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever?” which annoyed the neighbors into calling the cops. Another instance involved a woman who killed her abusive husband and would have gotten away with the murder, if not for a certain consulting detective and the fact that the woman started singing “Cell Block Tango” from the musical Chicago as she was being interviewed by New Scotland Yard.

Currently it is approaching 1 am and, for reasons that no one is entirely clear on, John Watson and Greg Lestrade are sitting in a pub a few blocks away from 221B Baker Street, getting drunk and talking about the crazy musical week they’ve just experienced… and how Sherlock Holmes, the world’s only consulting detective, is confused and completely stumped by the sudden rise in singing and dancing. Sherlock is not present and is not excepted to show up later—the man chose to go back to 221B and is most likely making extremely strange noises on his violin or doing an experiment with the lung John found sitting in a bowl in the fridge this morning… one can never be too sure when it comes to Sherlock.

Greg is focused on John and John is focused on two things—his current glass of beer and his cell phone. He knows that Sherlock has his phone with him—Sherlock _always_ has his phone with him… so that means that he is deliberately not answering John’s texts.

“John?” Greg leans over and glances at John’s phone as he waits for the waitress to bring the doctor a new glass of beer. “You know you could just call him.”

“It wouldn’t help.” John sighs. “He’s probably too busy trying to understand this singing stuff to actually think about what I said to him... and since when are you my relationship guru?”

“Since you fell in love with my boyfriend’s younger brother?” Greg smirked, taking the new glass of beer from the waitress and passing it over to John. “So what was your fight about?”

“It wasn’t really fight…” John sighs, pausing to down half his new glass of beer in one gulp. “Sherlock’s just an ass who would rather try to figure out why people are singing and dancing then doing what he _promised_ to do! I just asked him to turn that amazing deductive ability of his inward and at least _try_ to figure out just one little thing about himself!”

“… you said you wouldn’t call him, didn’t you?” Greg asked, taking a small sip of his own drink.

“Yep.” John says, popping the ‘p’. “I said I wouldn’t talk to him until he figured out what he felt— _feels_ , whatever.” The doctor pushes his now empty glass away from him and leans back in the booth he and Lestrade have claimed as their own. “Here is my prediction—by the end of tonight I will be horrible drunk, Sherlock won’t have an answer for me and I’ll drunk dialed him several times… unless you take away my phone.”

“I could ask Mycroft to talk to him.” Greg offers as he looks down at his glass. He’s only taken a few sips of the beer, and he wonders if he should pass his drink over to John and confiscate the doctor’s phone.

“I think we both know that’s a _horrible_ idea.” John laughs as he checks his phone again, only to find that there are no new messages. “Greg… now is the time to take my phone from me.”

“Nope. Either restrain yourself or call him.” Greg smirked as he wondered if he should call Mycroft—it didn’t seem like John would be in any state to walk back to Baker Street whenever he finally decided to leave the pub.

“I hate you.” John moaned as he rested his head in his hands, one of which was still gripping his phone.

“No you don’t—I’m the one buying your drinks.” Greg sighs, rolling his eyes at his more than a little drunk friend, who has clumsily started to dial Sherlock’s phone, apparently forgetting that Sherlock is the second number on his speed dial. (Greg is number one, since usually Sherlock forgets or just doesn’t call the police, leaving John to be the responsible one… or perhaps the _slightly_ more responsible one.)

(Author's Note: In an attempt to make this more understandable. _Italics_ = John singing. **Bold** = Sherlock singing. **_Both_** = Sherlock  & John singing.)

Greg Lestrade and John Watson don’t notice that the music which has been playing in the background has suddenly changed… no one in the bar notices that the music has changed, nor do they find it strange that, among the notes of a piano and other instruments, the ringing of a phone can be heard faintly. Even Greg doesn’t think it strange that, instead of drunkenly stammering into his phone starts to _sing._

“ _Picture perfect memories scattered all around the floor._  
 _Reaching for the phone 'cause I can't fight it anymore._  
 _And I wonder if I ever cross your mind… for me it happens all the time._ ”

Sherlock doesn’t know what prompted him to pick up his phone when it started to ring. He’d been poking at the lung which he’d taken form Bart’s and thinking about John Watson, thinking about what the instructions that the doctor had left him when he went out to drink with Lestrade.

Sherlock drops his scalped when he hears John on the other end of the line… or more specifically, when he hears John voice, singing _._

 _“It's a quarter after one, I'm all alone and I need you now._   
_Said I wouldn't call but I lost all control and I need you now._   
_And I don't know how I can do without… I just need you now.”_

Without even really being aware of what he is doing Sherlock stands up, abandoning the lung and heading towards the door. He pulls on his coat as his lips open, but John’s voice cuts him off.

 _“Another shot of whisky… can’t stop looking at the door.  
Wishing you’d you come sweeping in the way you did before…”_

Sherlock is running out of 221B Baker Street, holding the phone in one hand as he slams the front door closed behind him. He should be unable to, but when he opens his mouth he is able to sing without any trouble…and in the pub only a few blocks away Greg (and the rest of the pub) can hear Sherlock’s voice singing in perfect harmony with John’s.

 **  
_“And I wonder if I ever cross your mind…”_   
**

**“For me it happens all the time.”** Sherlock sings the line alone, stretching out the final word as the music swells.

 _“It’s a quarter after one, I’m a little drunk and I need you now.  
Said I wouldn’t call, but I lost all control and I need you now!”_ John cries out, his eyes moist with tears.

 ** _“And I don’t know how I can do without… I just need you now.”_** The two men sing as the pub and Greg Lestrade silently watch. The music shifts into a instrumental section which seems to stretch on and on, as Sherlock runs and John stares down into his empty glass.

 ** _“Guess I’d rather hurt than feel nothing at all…”_** Two voices

The door to the pub slams open and Sherlock steps into the room, his eyes instantly finding John, who slowly stands up and turns himself to face Sherlock, phone forgotten on the table behind him.

“ **It’s a quarter after one, I’m all alone and I need you now.** ” Sherlock sings, his phone no longer in his hands as he steps forward and reaches out towards John.

“ _And I said I wouldn’t call, but I’m a little drunk and I need you now._ ” A smile is starting to grow on John’s face as he sings and moves closer to Sherlock, until the two are standing so close they’re almost touching.

 **  
_“And I don’t know how I can do without…_   
**

Sherlock is the one who closes the gap, reaching out with one hand he tilts John’s head up and takes the doctor’s mouth in a deep kiss. Although their mouths are very much occupied, the song continues.

 ** _“I just need you now.”_** Their voices sing in perfect harmony.

Sherlock pulls back to allow the doctor to breathe and the two simply stare into each other’s eyes.

 **“I just need you now**.” Sherlock’s voice sings along as the music fades and the two seem to gain control of themselves once again.

“I love you.” Sherlock whispers, leaning down for another kiss, which he hands control of over to John. Back in the booth Greg smirks and grabs John’s phone as Sherlock takes John’s hand and all but pulls John out of the pub and back towards 221B Baker Street.

Elsewhere in London, Mycroft Holmes smiles as a quickly assembled team of mute soldiers storm the house where the medallion is currently held. Soon one of the soldiers emerges, holding the medallion in one gloved hand, he passes it to the young woman Mr. Giles had kindly sent over. She mutters something over the medallion, which glows brightly for a second before the color drains from it.

“Are we finished?” Mycroft asks, looking down at the medallion with distaste.

“Yes.” The woman replies as she slips the medallion into a clear plastic evidence bag. “You might have some lingering effects—only for a week or so and nothing as strong as what you’ve been getting.”

“Thank you Miss Rosenberg.” Mycroft smiled politely at the red-headed woman and turned to head back to his car—he had a boyfriend and (possibly) his brother’s would-be boyfriend to pick up from a little bar on Baker Street.

A light rain starts falling as Mycroft’s phone vibrates, altering him to a new text message.

 **John and Sherlock just sang “Need You Now” Sherlock dragged John out of the pub—M’s gonna need a new nickname for Sherlock. You better have an explanation.**

 **-GL**

Mycroft smirks and opens up his umbrella as he starts heading towards his waiting car. He doesn’t realize that he’s started to sing as the rain beats out a steady rhythm on his umbrella.

“I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you,

Every thunder cloud that came was one more I might not get through…

On the darkest day there's always light and now I see it too

But I never liked the rain until I walked through it with you…”

THE END

 

 **  
Songs Used/Abused   
**

[“500 Miles” by The Proclaimers](http://youtu.be/tbNlMtqrYS0)

[“Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees](http://youtu.be/I_izvAbhExY)

["S&M" by Rihanna](http://youtu.be/KdS6HFQ_LUc)

["Poker Face" by Lady Gaga](http://youtu.be/bESGLojNYSo)

[“Who Wants To Live Forever?” by Queen](http://youtu.be/_Jtpf8N5IDE)

[“Cell Block Tango” From Chicago](http://youtu.be/alUEEA9qFXM)

["Need You Now" By Lady Antebellum](http://youtu.be/eM213aMKTHg)

["Like The Rain" by Clint Black](http://youtu.be/mxdrGY7JUkM)

 


End file.
